Pine Crest boys and girls dominate, win Region 4 swim and dive meet

Ryan S. Clark

Playing through the public address system was The Wanted’s intoxicating hit, “I’m Glad You Came.”

The song serenaded those who were leaving the pool but served as a great soundtrack for the Pine Crest swimming and diving team. Both the boys and girls took first place Saturday at the 1A Region 4 Championship at Nova Southeastern University.

“We made the point of wanting to open up the meet and make a strong statement,” said Pine Crest Jay Fitzgerald. “We felt if we could make that strong statement early, it could carry the momentum.”

Fitzgerald’s swimmers took what their coach said to heart and they didn’t waste time setting the tone.

The girls opened with the 200-yard medley relay and freshman Marta Ciesla worked through a somewhat slow start pushing her way to a thrilling first place finish helping Pine Crest beat Ransom Everglades by nearly a second.

Ciesla, who also won 50- and 100-freestyle, said the goal was use the first race to create energy and hope the rest of the team could draw from it.

“After the relay, one of our teammates came up and said she got pumped from just watching us,” Ciesla said. “For me, it was awesome. It was such a good feeling to go out there and help set the tone for your team.”

Sure, it could have been argued Pine Crest had plenty of momentum after the first relay, but just in case they didn’t the boys 200-yard medley relay team generated some themselves.

Like the girls team, the boys overcame a somewhat slow start as senior Kent Haeffner, arguably the team’s best performer, put everything he had into helping Pine Crest beat Mast Academy by less than a second.

Haeffner, who recently committed to Harvard, said being able to control the meet early and often was such a massive part of his team’s success.

“When you get out there you want to go fast too,” Haeffner said. “As a teammate you say to yourself, “There’s no reason I can’t go that fast,” and then you realize you’re going to be going fast too.”

To say Haeffner is his team’s elder statesman would be a bit of an understatement.

He’s polished. He’s refined. He knows how to explain a concept and really drive home a point.

After all, he’s the chairman of the Florida Federation of Teenage Republicans. He showed off some of those leadership qualities throughout the day.

He was encouraging his teammates during the meet and after, he had so many good things to say.

“We have a young team,” he said. “So we have a lot of people that will be going to state for the first time and we’ve told them they’ve got nothing to worry about. We only have a few seniors so when you look at the rest of this team, you realize something. We have a really bright future.”